Page 487 - 08 News Today

Together -- reducing our deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing our immigration system, freeing ourselves from foreign oil. weve got more work to do. >> so what does all this partisan soul searching mean for mitt romney and what role could he possibly serve in the process? joining me nbc and hill columnist karen and congressman jim saltzman. its not like 08 when he simply returned to the senate, like john mccain. whats next for mitt romney? does he even fit into the ongoing political conversati...

Returns we did and look forward to cutting taxes for small businesses and individuals and stream liang the process for safe, environmentally sound mining and doing more to reform the education system and getting people the skills that they need for the jobs they need to fill for today. thats what we are excited about. >> how do you reconcile -- its a little bit peculiar that you take over the state senate, those are the ones that took off and they high-tailed off to illinois about a year and-a-h...

Start with the same question. what in your opinion is ailing your party? >> i think really one of the stats from election night shocked me. it was george h.w. bush won 60% of the white vote in 1988. me got over 400 electoral votes. mitt romney did the same thing. he got crushed. i think there are three reasons this thing went so badly. one is because we have some type of -- we have decided either to ignore or to not try and court the changing faces in the electorate in this country. i think that...

Romney campaign made fun of, they have field offices we dont need field offices volunteers are data collectors. what they do is go door-to-door, take polls, ask you three questions, call you during dinner, thats coming in and refining statistical model so that you know the next door to knock on and smarter targeting that. if youre funneling it through and linking it to the large-scale polling krur doing continuously for microtargeting it is give you a granular understanding of the electorate tha...

Addition to the appeal to these broad array of demographic groups that democrats clearly had. look at the mechanical problems that republicans have. luke franz of resurgent republican group started in part by eddie gillespie had an amazing analysis of the ohio exit polls that showed the power of the obama machinery. we are all used to people who talk big and dont deliver. the obama machinery delivered. and look at this little sliver. in ohio. >> right. >> the african-american vote is 12% of the ...

Party. one last thought before we hear from president obama here tonight. in some ways, you know, sitting here as a black person, it is amazing to think that he just got re-elected, with all the problems that we have been talking about. yes, there is a lot of racial polarization in the electorate, as we see it tonight. but heres a guy who had difficulties, does not have the savior, magical aura that he had in 08. hes an average guy, trying his best, arguably, but up against it, and in some cases...

I-4 corridor voted for republican candidates in seven of the past 10 presidential elections. obama won it twice in 08 and 12. there has been a surge of puerto ricans, central and south americans in central florida. certainly helped the president. after all of these still outstanding ballots are tabulated, it does appear very unlikely that governor romney could perhaps overcome the current lead by president obama, which is now 46,000,039 votes. it is close -- 46,039. votes. it is still close here...

Black voters in bigger numbers turned out and fit models polls had did not fit models romney campaign hoped for. and young voters, and women voters came back again to fit 08 model, gender gap reappeared. in all of those way whats were seeing, i think is a new kind of politics. you look back in american history. what has driven us for a large measure, large part of the last part of the 20th century was a blue collar, white vote. that drove, i think republicans to win coming from 68 forward most o...

Stalling way of dealing with the business of the country. and we need to not interested in fighting anymore. >> sir, i want to look at some jm see08. ents support among pping 44% co 80% of non-whit four years ago. this year winning tionwide as we look at makeup african-americans making up unchanged from four years ago. was record mbers.> but do you think more of anonal or a impact of having the first african-american president re-elect snd. impact on the country. but when i saw late lasm i alarm...

And obama carried the moderates. so what this tells me, along with what we are getting for the party break, if its as much as 6 points or whatever, we are getting is that they got the vote out. we see it in the initiatives and in the margins of these small states. there are counties that i have seen tonight where obama actually did better than he did in 08. where they really work in the swing states. so i think it was a more liberal electorate. we will see what the total turnout is. i do think t...